The Trump administration’s new vetting rules for unaccompanied immigrant children have turned a 30-day reunification process into a 200-day ordeal — and families are now suing to get their kids home.
“Our Goal Was Simply to Reach Our Parents”
Lizeth is 15 years old. Last fall, she left Ecuador with her five younger cousins — ranging from age 3 to 13 — after their grandmother’s home was robbed. They traveled through jungle, waded through rivers, and crossed the southern border into the United States. Their only goal was to reach their parents, who had arrived in New York City over the previous several years.
“When we were hungry, when we were wading through the rivers, when we were most struggling, reaching our parents was the only thing on our minds,” Lizeth told New York Focus.
When the children reached the border, immigration officials apprehended them and transferred them to the Office of Refugee Resettlement — as federal law requires. They were flown to New York City and placed in a foster home in Manhattan, about 10 miles from their parents in Queens.
That was in the fall of 2025. Their parents submitted every document the government requested — identification, employment letters, paystubs, DNA tests, fingerprints. They allowed federal workers to inspect their homes. They attended in-person appointments. They waited.
Four months passed before all six children came home. And they only came home because their families sued.
What Happened to the 30-Day Reunification Process
Before the Trump administration’s second term, the average length of stay for unaccompanied children in Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters was about 30 days. The process was designed to be relatively efficient: children would cross the border, be placed in ORR custody, and be released to a vetted parent or sponsor within weeks.
That process no longer exists in its original form.
By March 2026, the average length of stay in ORR shelters had reached approximately 200 days. The Trump administration imposed sweeping new vetting procedures for sponsors — requiring DNA testing, fingerprinting, in-person appointments to verify documents, and identification papers that are difficult or impossible for undocumented immigrants to obtain. ORR can now also disqualify potential sponsors based on their immigration status, making it categorically impossible for some parents to qualify to take their own children home.
But the most alarming change is not procedural. It is what happens to parents who show up.
More than 100 people have been arrested by ICE while trying to get their children out of ORR custody since last year, according to the California Newsroom. The Trump administration rescinded Biden-era rules that had blocked ORR from sharing sponsors’ information with immigration enforcement authorities. In one of the cases covered by New York Focus, a mother named Blanca was briefly detained by ICE at her very appointment to claim her children.
“We can’t assure them that as a result of working to get their kids back, they won’t face detention,” said Zoe Schonfeld of the Center for Family Representation in New York City.
“ORR Has Become an Arm of Immigration Enforcement”
The Office of Refugee Resettlement was created to protect children — to provide temporary shelter while a safe placement with family could be arranged. That is what the law says it is for. That is not what it is functioning as now.
“It has come to the point where ORR is not functioning as it was intended,” said Becky Wolozin, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law. “It has in large part become an arm of immigration enforcement, and much like for adults, one of the only ways for a child to be released to their family is to bring a habeas at this point.”
The psychological toll on children held for months — separated from their parents by bureaucratic obstacles, told by facility staff that their parents could be deported if they disobeyed rules, rarely allowed outside — is documented in court filings and firsthand accounts.
“There’s anxiety and depression, I think a feeling of helplessness when it’s not clear why they’re not being let out,” said Emily Norman of Kids in Need of Defense. “Kids feel a lot of pressure and worry over risks that they’re putting their family members in.”
Maria, whose 11-year-old son Maykel was held for months while she completed document after document, describes visits that lasted two hours every two weeks. Each time she saw him, his clothes and shoes were dirty. He told her he was afraid of being deported.
When a caseworker called in March to tell her that all the documents she had submitted were now expired — and that she would need to start over — she hired an attorney and sued.
Days after the habeas petition was filed, ORR released Maykel and his five cousins.
“I brought him home with me to hug him, feed him, buy him clothes — to do everything the way it should be done,” Maria said.
The New Legal Tool: Habeas Corpus for Children
Habeas corpus petitions — the same legal tool that has become the primary mechanism for challenging adult immigration detention — are now being used to free children from ORR shelters. Before last year, using habeas to challenge ORR custody was almost unheard of. Now attorneys are filing them with growing frequency, and they are working.
Across the country, lawyers have filed habeas petitions for at least four dozen children in ORR custody since last year, according to New York Focus. In several cases, ORR released the children before a judge even ruled — a sign that the government knows its position is legally vulnerable.
As we reported last week, Powers Law Group recently secured the release of a detained adult through a federal habeas petition, after a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas found that four and a half months of detention without an individualized hearing violated the Fifth Amendment’s due process guarantee. The same constitutional principles apply to children: prolonged government custody of a minor, when a fit and willing parent is available, raises serious due process questions that federal courts are beginning to take seriously.
The pattern is clear: when families have legal representation and file the right petition, children come home. When they don’t — when they are navigating a system designed to exhaust them, in a language that may not be their own, under the shadow of deportation — children stay.
The Risks Parents Face
The decision to pursue reunification through the ORR system is not straightforward for undocumented parents or those with pending immigration cases. Every step of the process now carries risk.
In-person appointments at DHS offices — required for document verification — have resulted in ICE arrests. DNA test requirements and identity document standards that are difficult for undocumented immigrants to meet have been interpreted by advocates as intentional barriers designed not to protect children but to gather information for enforcement.
“Immigration attorneys say the new vetting procedures are a pretext to gather information to potentially arrest sponsors,” New York Focus reported.
For parents in Texas navigating this situation, the geography adds another layer of difficulty. Children placed in ORR facilities may be held in facilities far from Texas, making visits financially and logistically difficult. The in-person appointment requirement alone can mean taking unpaid days off work, traveling long distances, and appearing before federal officials — all while carrying the risk that the appointment itself becomes an arrest.
None of this means families should give up or avoid the process. It means they should not navigate it alone.
What Families Should Know
If your child or a family member’s child has crossed the border and is currently in ORR custody, there are several things worth understanding immediately.
You have the right to be considered as a sponsor. The government cannot simply ignore a parent’s application. Delays and bureaucratic obstacles are common, but they can be challenged — especially with legal representation.
You should not attend in-person appointments at federal immigration offices without first consulting an immigration attorney. The risk of detention at those appointments is documented and real.
Document everything. Every form submitted, every appointment attended, every communication with ORR or case workers. This documentation is the foundation of any legal challenge.
If reunification has been delayed for months despite completing all requirements, a habeas corpus petition may be the most direct path to getting your child home. Courts have shown willingness to act when the constitutional case is made clearly.
Powers Law Group represents families across Texas navigating immigration proceedings, detention cases, and ORR reunification challenges. If your family is in this situation, contact us today — do not wait for the process to exhaust you into giving up.
Sources
- Isabelle Taft, These Kids Trekked Hundreds of Miles to Reunite With Their Parents. The Feds Kept Them Separated for Months., New York Focus, May 13, 2026. https://www.nysfocus.com
- California Newsroom, More Than 100 People Arrested While Trying to Retrieve Children from ORR Custody, 2026. https://www.californiasun.co
- National Center for Youth Law, ORR Custody and Sponsor Vetting: Legal Analysis, 2026. https://youthlaw.org
- Kids in Need of Defense, Unaccompanied Children in Federal Custody: Conditions and Legal Rights, 2026. https://www.supportkind.org
- Center for Family Representation, New Family Reunification Project, New York City, 2026. https://www.cfrny.org
- American Immigration Council, Unaccompanied Children: Overview of Federal Law and Policy, 2025. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org
- ACLU, Children’s Rights in Immigration Proceedings, 2025. https://www.aclu.org
- Human Rights Watch, Unaccompanied Children in US Immigration Custody, 2025. https://www.hrw.org
- Powers Law Group, Four and a Half Months Detained. No Hearing. A Federal Court Said That Was Unconstitutional., May 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
- Powers Law Group, ICE Is Trying to Deport Asylum Seekers to Countries They’ve Never Lived In, May 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
